Home Trending Cameron Levins clocks an eighth-place 60:38 half-marathon performance in Istanbul

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Cameron Levins clocks an eighth-place 60:38 half-marathon performance in Istanbul

April 28, 2024

Canada’s Cameron Levins took in the Istanbul Half Marathon and clocked an eight-place, 60-minute and 38-second performance on Sunday. It is his second-fastest performance and just 20 seconds from his personal best.

Levins currently holds the national record at 60:18, which he ran in February during the First Half Half Marathon in Vancouver. The 35-year-old Vancouver Island native also holds the North American marathon record at 2:05:36 from the Tokyo Marathon in March 2023.

The Istanbul Half Marathon was won by Hicham Amghar of Morocco in the time of 59:47. Taking second was Ethiopian Dinkalem Ayele in 59:55 and fellow Ethiopian Gemechu Bute who crossed the finish line in 60:03.

Hicham Amghar, 2nd last year, breaks away and wins the #IstanbulHalfMarathon in a 59:47 PB.
Not the expected results during a rainy morning in Turkey, still 16 men sub62. @CamLevins 6th in 60:38 pic.twitter.com/hznwXP2T50
— Lorenzo Nesi (@CoachLN) April 28, 2024

The women’s race

Kenyan Sheila Chelangat won the women’s race in the time of 66:47. She was followed in by fellow Kenyan Miriam Chebet who finished in 67:14 and Ethiopian Zewditu Aderaw with her 68:17 clocking.

Chelangat, who was the tenth fastest woman on the start list with a personal best of 69:38, took the lead relatively early in the race. The 26-year-old ran behind a pacemaker when she moved clear between 7 and 10km. Despite the poor weather conditions she was able to keep the pace high and was so strong that she was never challenged. “I am really happy with my performance and the victory. However the weather was poor and the roads were slippery,“ said Sheila Chelangat, who achieved her biggest career victory so far in Istanbul. “I am not yet planning a marathon debut,“ said the Kenyan, who only ran her half marathon debut last month in Lille, France where she was second.

Competing for second place Chebet and Aderaw were battling between 10 and 13km. Then Kenya’s debutant Chebet was able to move away from the Ethiopian. Running her debut half marathon in Istanbul the former European 5,000m Meraf Bahta finished in 16th position with 72:51. The Swede was the best European in the race, but missed the qualifying standard for the continental championships in Rome in June by over a minute.

The men’s race

In the men’s race, a bigger leading group passed the 10km mark in 28:39. Dinkalem Ayele was among the leaders, along with Hicham Amghar and Gemechu Bute. Ayele was the winner of the Lisbon Half Marathon this spring, but in the final stages, the Ethiopian could not get past Amghar. The runner from Morocco was in the lead after 17km with Ayele and Bute close behind. Finishing runner-up and beaten by just six seconds a year ago this time Amghar made sure he is the number one. With 59:47 he was eight seconds ahead and improved his PB from 2023 by six seconds.

“Despite the weather, I was able to run a personal best, so I am very happy. It was better to have rain instead of wind,“ said the 29-year-old, who celebrated one of his best career performances. “I may well return to Istanbul in November for my marathon debut. I really like the way the organisers take care of the elite runners here,“ said Amghar.

While Ethiopia’s pre-race favourite Solomon Berihu did not finish.

The reigning European half marathon champion Tadesse Abraham of Switzerland finished in 24th position with 63:18. “It was a good race, but mentally I am not well,“ said Tadesse Abraham, who still has to come to terms with with loss of his fellow-Swiss marathon runner Adrian Lehmann, who died after a heart attack just eight days ago. “I came to Istanbul to run and get this a bit out of my head. Taking this into account I am satisfied with my performance today.“

Levins in the Olympics

Levins will represent Canada in the Olympics for the third time during the 2024 Paris Games this summer. He will be looking for redemption from his Tokyo Olympic experience in 2021, where he ran four marathons in 10 months, including the Sapporo, Japan Olympic event in 34C temperatures. Only one of them went well, which was his 11th-hour race in Austria where he nipped under the qualification standard with his 2:10:14 run. The Olympic standard at the time was 2:11:30. It is now 2:08:10.

A record number of 14,200 runners entered the 19th edition of the Türkiye Is Bankasi Istanbul Half Marathon, a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race. This includes athletes who competed in a 10k race staged parallel.